Archive for the ‘USC’ Category

The talk of the nation this week has been the over-celebration penalty that was called on Washington QB Jake Locker. We never gave our thoughts, so after everyone has, we will. Bad Rule. Correct Call. According to the rules, you can’t throw the ball high in the air. The ball Locker threw was in the air for 2.36 seconds. That qualifies as high. Should that rule be in the book? No. But it is and the official made the correct call. Besides, UW has to make the PAT, no matter how far it is. If you are truly a team trying to turn it around, you make that kick.

The Washington State game against Baylor has been moved to tomorrow night at 5:30. We were mildly excited because we were looking forward to relaxing after work and watching the game. Then it hit us, the game now won’t be on TV. Understandably, this is what’s best for the people of the Texas coast but, selfishly, we wish we could watch it.

We’ll find out this week if UCLA is the real deal. BYU sneanked out of Seattle with a win so they should be on high alert this week. The game is in Provo so it is going to be very important that the good Kevin Craft shows up for the Bruins.

USC-Ohio State is the game of the weekend. Everyone is focusing on Beanie Wells’ injured foot but we’re more interested in seeing how Mark Sanchez plays. OSU returns most of their defense, a defense that is considerably better that Virginia’s. Sanchez is going to need to play well, it doesn’t matter how many 5-star RBs the Trojans have.

Stanford has another tough game this week visiting TCU. The Horn Frogs are another one of those teams that it seems every year are looking to burst the BCS bubble. This game time has also been changed to an earlier start time on Saturday to avoid the hurricane. Stanford showed last week that they still have many holes to fill.

A look at what the newspapers are saying a day after they’ve had time to digest Saturday’s action.

Beat a team 70-0, so what. That’s no reason to relax, especially with the mighty Rockets from Toledo coming to town Saturday. Coaches don’t let Wildcats relax [Tucson Citizen]

Sun Devil freshman had an opportunity to play against Northern Arizona, exposing them to their first college football action. Coach Dennis Erickson was more focused on getting them some experience than the results on the field. ASU’s late dip vs. NAU doesn’t worry Erickson [East Valley Tribune]

California Head Coach Jeff Tedford chose Kevin Riley as his QB right out of fall camp. After Saturday’s win over Michigan State, the gap between Riley and last year’s starter Nate Longshore seems even greater. Riley was telling the Cal students to stop booing Longshore after he threw his second pick of the day in his new, limited role. Cal’s Tedford gets QB decision right…twice [Contra Costa Times]

Oregon QB Justin Roper is feeling better after suffering a concussion on Saturday. Also, starting LT Fenuki Tupou will be back this week after being suspended for accepting a lunch and $100 from an agent. Tupou has since donated $110 to charity. Ducks’ stock ticks up [The Register-Guard]

Tyrone Willingham keeps all his practices closed expect the first 25 minutes. It looked like Oregon had been practicing with the Huskies all season, maybe even had a copy of their playbook. With BYU coming to town this week, UW doesn’t have a lot of time to get this fixed. Washington’s game plan was an open book to Oregon [Seattle Times]

After watching film of the Oklahoma State game, Coach Paul Wulff still sees a team that made too many mistakes. Wulff was impressed with the offense in the 3rd quarter, stresses the fact that it should run that smooth all game long. Looking back at Saturday’s game [Spokesman-Review]

***Can you believe real, live college football is only one week away? It feels like Christmas Eve around here. This means that Michael Phelps has more gold medals in 2008 than we do days until the gridiron.***

Eugene, OR – Who’s gonna be Oregon’s starting QB against Washington? Who knows, but an announcement is expected Friday.

Los Angeles, CA – USC starting QB Mark Sanchez participated in 7-on-7 drills Wednesday. Causing further speculation that he may be able to play August 30 when the Trojans travel to Virginia. Also ESPN’s Ted Miller sat down with Pete Carroll. Here is Part One and Part Two. It’s a good read, so take the time.

Bristol, CT – Former Pac-10 football analyst-turned-play-by-play man Dan Fouts has been signed by CBS to bolster their football coverage team. Fouts was let go by ABC/ESPN last year.

Pullman, WA – New head coach Paul Wulff gave the Cougars a grade of C+ for their first week of efforts. While the players may not be picking up the new playbook as fast as the coaches would like, they are definitely getting the hitting part down pat. A little fire after the play is over, showing that a 10th-place prediction doesn’t mean much in the land of wheat.

Seattle, WA – The University of Washington may soon hire a new Athletic Director. All we can say is, it’s about damn time. Having been without a permanent hire since January, the Huskies need to find some stability in their athletic programs. They currently have a head football coach who knows less about his starting QB’s injury than the kid’s father. Or at least Scott Locker is willing to share the information with the media, while the tight-lipped Willingham prefers to play dumb. Also, moving over to the Sports Blogging Network in the next week or two is the UW Football Blog.

Eugene, OR – Big love for Oregon DB (what position does he really play? Safety? Rover? We don’t know, but want to.) Patrick Chung who Sporting News says might be the best defensive player in the country! It seems everybody in the conference is having QB problems, but Oregon’s QBs looked decent in their scrimmage Saturday. It’s only 19 more days until the hated Huskies arrive in Eugene.

Los Angeles, CA – With UCLA starter Ben Olson getting hurt and subsequently being out eight weeks, the QB race is suddenly wide open again. The coaches want to have a starter in place in exactly two weeks, so we’ll see who decides to take the reigns.

Tempe, AZ – The nomadic Ryan McFoy may have finally found his place on the field, as a linebacker. It has to be tough getting moved around like that, although forgetting your thigh pads will get you noticed.

Berekley, CA – After a week of practice and three days in pads, injuries at California are starting to add up. It’s good to hear that RB Jahvid Best is finally returning to full health, something that Cal will need if it wants to finish near the top of the conference.

Palo Alto, CA – With a new defensive coordinator, the Cardinal defense returns 11 players who made starts last season and hope to improve on last year’s ninth-worst Pac-10 defense. In recruiting news, Stanford has offered a scholarship to Joe Montana’s son. Nick Montana is currently a junior who is competing for the starting QB job at Oaks Christian High.

*A daily look at what’s happening in the world of college football, west coast-style.

Ted Miller visited Arizona State’s practice and had some notes for us. Looks like the depth issue at WR may not be as dire as first thought. [Ted Miller’s Blog]

In his usual quick-hitting format, Scott Wolf tells us USC OL Daniel Campbell will not be attending USC, but rather he is enrolled at Hargreaves Military Academy in Virginia. [Scott Wolf]

Lots of good notes from the Husky’s first practice today from Bob Condotta. Noteably, Jake Locker looked more accurate, the coaches were fired up, and suspended LB E.J. Savannah was watching practice. Eat this coverage up Husky fans because starting tomorrow the media only gets to watch the firts 25 minutes of practice. [Bob Condotta]

*We are going to be breaking down the Pac-10 schedule week-by-week to find out which game is the best every Saturday. By “best,” we mean which game you should stop what your doing, make a sandwich, grab a beer, and sit on your ass and watch for 3+ hours.

The Week 5 Slate:Colorado State at CaliforniaOregon at Washington StateUSC at Oregon State (Thur.)Stanford at WashingtonFresno State at UCLA

Week Five gives us two non-conference games and three hard-hittin’, pass-flyin’ Pac-10 battles. Colorado State goes to California and Fresno State to UCLA. Cal should win easily, possibly starting the season 4-0. Fresno State and Pat Hill continue their mantra “Anybody, Anywhere” as they take on another Pac-1o opponent. UCLA will have its’ hands full with the Bulldogs and don’t be surprised to see Rick Neuheisel lose this one.

Oregon tavels to Pullman to face the Cougs. Washington State doesn’t hate Oregon near as much as Washington does, but they still don’t really like each other. Last year the Ducks destroyed the Cougars in Eugene, but two years ago the Cougars had an oppurtunity to pull out the win at Martin Stadium.

Stanford at Washington. Possibly the Battle for the Basement. Both teams probably won’t be any good and with the game being on Sept. 27 chances are that it rains in Seattle. A wet, boring game for 9th place? It’s not the game of the week, but being football-crazy idiots we will be watching.

Who can forget the last time USC visited Oregon State? The upset of the mighty Trojans sent the Beaver fans and all of the Pac-10 into a tizzy. This time USC is looking for a little revenge and get an opportunity on a national televised game on Thursday night.

The Pac-10 has always been about tradition. They don’t want to expand and have even refused a plus-one system that college football fans have been clamoring for ever since the BCS was invented. The Rose Bowl should be Pac-10 v. Big 10, they say. If tradition really matters, why not let USC and UCLA both wear their home jerseys for the rivalry game?

Who doesn’t want to see the UCLA powder blue and the Trojan cardinal red slamming into each other in late November/early December? If the teams agree to do it (which, apparently they have) it will cost them one timeout each half. We aren’t sure if that means both teams lose a T.O. or just the team wearing the “wrong” jersey color. Bets are it’s just the away team that gets penalized.

The last time both teams wore the home jerseys was 1982. It has been 25 years. It’s time to drop the stupid rule about losing a timeout (What the hell kind of rule is that anyway?) and let the fans see the tradition the Pac-10 works so hard to protect.

*We are going to be breaking down the Pac-10 schedule week-by-week to find out which game is the best every Saturday. By “best,” we mean which game you should stop what your doing, make a sandwich, grab a beer, and sit on your ass and watch for 3+ hours.

The Week 3 Slate:Arizona at New MexicoUNLV at Arizona StateCalifornia at MarylandOregon at PurdueHawaii at Oregon StateStanford at TCUUCLA at BYUOhio State at USCOklahoma at WashingtonWashington State at Baylor

This is the fullest week on the Pac-10 calender. All 10 teams play and all 10 teams play a non-conference game, which means there are plenty of options for you on September 13.

Picking out the best game this week, pretty easy: Ohio State at USC. This game could eliminate one team from the National Title chase (please lose Ohio State) and could vault the winner into a position to control their own destiny.

After what Carson Palmer said about Ohio State and their fans this game may be the most talked about college football game not involving Michigan or the national championship in State of Ohio history. And you know what, we love that. Isn’t fun when two historic programs have the balls (pay attention SEC) to play each other in a meaningful regular season game? The magnitude of the game, the history of the programs, and Palmer’s thoughts make this game the Best Game of Week 3. Oh, and add in fact that Chris, Kirk, and Lee will be on hand in LA.